Teen movie franchises are proving to be a very lucrative investment for Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., which appears to have yet another multi-part epic hit on its hands.

The studio, which was founded in Vancouver by mining magnate Frank Giustra, won the North American box office over the weekend with Divergent, a film about a dystopian future where people are divided into factions based on human virtues. Despite very mixed reviews, Divergent earned US$56-million, beating recently-lowered estimates and finishing far ahead of

Muppets Most Wanted, which finished in second place with US$16.5-million.

Divergent is the first film in an anticipated teen-warrior trilogy based on the young adult novels by Veronica Roth. The second installment, called Insurgent, is set to begin filming later this spring.

With its dystopian political backdrop and tough female protagonist, Divergent has glaring similarities to the Hunger Games franchise. Some critics have called it a rip-off. But that is probably fine as far as Lions Gate is concerned, as it controls both franchises. Lions Gate also released the Twilight films, meaning it has virtually cornered the market on multi-part epics for the tweener crowd.

Richard Fay, head of domestic distribution at Lions Gate, said Divergent is “a great beginning” of another franchise for the company.

“The key to the success of these franchises is finding the difference and marketing it,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s not easy. And I think we’re doing it better than anyone else right now, frankly.”

All the same, Divergent may not be a runaway home run in the vein of Twilight or The Hunger Games.

Pre-release estimates had Divergent earning as much as US$68-million on opening weekend. But those predictions were lowered after it pulled in only US$4.9-million on Thursday. Lions Gate shares dropped almost 8% on Friday after the disappointing start. However, the final total of US$56-million was slightly better than expected. It cost US$85-million to make.

By comparison, the first Twilight film earned US$69.6-million in its opening weekend, while the first Hunger Games film pulled in a whopping US$152.5-million in the same period.

The Hunger Games enjoyed extremely positive reviews when it came out. But like Twilight, Divergent has not been so fortunate. Only 40% of critics gave it positive reviews, according to Rotten Tomatoes. However, it got an 81% rating from the website’s audience.

Thanks largely to the hit teen franchises, Lions Gate has enjoyed parabolic growth in its stock price, which has jumped nearly five-fold since the start of 2010. The company now has a market value of more than US$3.8-billion.

In addition to the hit movies, the studio was in the spotlight due to its proxy battle with activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who tried to gain control of the company in 2010. The two sides struck a truce in 2011. However, Lions Gate recently agreed to pay US$7.5-million to settle allegations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it failed to disclose putting millions of new shares into the hands of a “management-friendly director” to help win the proxy fight.